In 1985, US pop magazine Bop mused: "Two Sides To Adam Ant! Sometimes Adam's venerable, and other times he's confident, isn't that what makes him such a special guy?" Almost 30 years on, the contradictions within the 80s icon are still making news, but Ant is unbowed. "I'd rather be a rock'n'roll star than a fucking critic," he declares.

Looking back to his pre-fame, post-punk days for a special Record Store Day release of debut album Dirk Wears White Sox, Ant – aka Stuart Goddard – and his band The Ministers Of New Super Heavy Funk Punk are joined by original Ants drummer Dave Barbarossa and bassist Leigh Gorman. It's the first time the three have played together since their fateful London show on 31 December 1979, after which Barbarossa and Gorman left to form Bow Wow Wow. But as the brittle beats and jabbing bass of Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2) rise around the frontman's ageless vocals, the years simply fall away.

Dirk Wears White Sox was a lesson in artful rebellion, and the Peter Pan of punk casts maturity aside to revel in banned singles The Day I Met God and Catholic Day. "Every word of this song is true," Ant says of Cleopatra. "If you find it prurient or sexist, I don't care." Resplendent in Napoleonic hat and Seditionaries' shirt, he slaps a black leather-clad thigh and jolts, spins and jumps to the twisted pop of Nine Plan Failed and fractured funk of The Idea. Although there's a hint of Norman Wisdom in his pantomime moves, Ant recreates his past studiously, and it only takes a hip thrust and a coy look to recall what a peerless pop star he is.

With the conclusion of the album, Ant sings the magnificently sleazy Whip in My Valise from behind a dressing screen, his sneering, cocky voice pristine even while he's removing his clothes. He emerges in a pirate shirt for the second half of the show and with it the sureness of his punk days disappears. Era-defining hits like Stand and Deliver and Ant Music are given none of the reverence of earlier songs, whilst covers of T-Rex's Get It On and 20th Century Boy, feel out of place during such a celebration of Ant's own canon. The usually lithe Physical is unnecessarily beefed up by Ant's two guitarists, but Beat My Guest and Kings of the Wild Frontier deflect the metal-inspired meddling, while the odd rant, a rare glimpse of romance with Valentine, and the stunning, shrieking Red Scab ensure that Ant leaves with his both contrariness and punk credentials thrillingly alive.

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